Ancic bids au revoir to Masters hopes
Ancic's defeat leaves Blake and Germany's Tommy Haas in contention for Masters Cup
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Friday, 03, Nov 2006 08:39
Mario Ancic's dreams of playing in the Masters Cup have been crushed after losing to Nikolay Davydenko 6-3 6-3 in the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters.
The Croatian star was broken once in each set by the in-form Russian and is unable to overtake big-hitting American James Blake for the final spot for the lucrative season-ending tournament in Shanghai.
Ancic had fought back from a horrific knee injury in July after a jet-ski accident.
The 22-year-old said he was proud of his comeback after a three-month layoff.
"After what happened, not too many guys gave me a chance of qualifying," he said.
"I missed three Masters series events and the US Open and I was a long way out."
"Then I won the title in St Petersburg last week and I knew that to qualify for China I had to keep winning matches. It was unbelievable pressure."
Davydenko will face Tommy Robredo in the last four after the Spaniard beat Jarkko Nieminen 6-7 (4/7) 7-6 (7/4) 6-4.
Dominik Hrbaty, who beat Andy Murray in the previous round, also booked his place in the semis after beating eighth seed Tomas Berdych 6-4 1-6 6-2.
The Masters Cup begins on November 12th with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Ivan Ljubicic, Andy Roddick, David Nalbandian, Davydenko and Robredo having already qualified.